Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1887-05-01

air was sweet with the odor Of ferns ant
the mimosa flower. The running watel
splashed and musieally fell; the sunlight
lay in golden bars athwart the shade, like
the memory of happy days in the graz
vista of life; away in the cliffs yOnder
the rock-doves were preparing to nest by
hundreds, and waking the silence will
their cooling and the flutter of their wings
Even the grim old eagle perched on the
pinnacle of the rock was pruning himself
contentedly happy in the knowledge thai
his mate had laid an egg in that dark cor
ner of the cliff. Everything rejoiced and
cried aloud that summer was at hand and
that it was time to bloom and love anC
nest. Soon it would be winter again
when things died, and next summer Other
things would live under the sun, and they
perchance would be forgotten. That wa:
what they seemed to say.
And as she lay and heard, her youthful
blood, drawn by Natures magnetic force,
rs the moon draws the tide, rose in hel
veins like the sap in the budding trees
and stirred her virginia. serenity. All the
bodily natural part of her caught the tone:
of Natures happy Voice that babe bel
break her bands, live and love, and be s
woman. And 10! the spirit within hel
answered to it, and flung wide her hOsOm''
doors, and of q sudden, ~ it were, some
thing quickened and lived in her hear
that was of her and yet had its own life
life apart; something that sprang from
her and another, and that would always
be with her now and could never die; and
she rose pale and trembling, as woman
trembles at the first stirring of the chile
that she shall bear, and CLING 10 the flow
ery bough of the beautiful bush above anG
then saLk down again, feeling the spirit
of her girlhood had departed from her, and
that another angel had entered there
knew that she loved with heart and sou
and body, and was very woman.
She had called to Love rs the wretched
call TO Death, and Love had come in hi
strength and possessed her utterly; and
now for a little while she was afraid Il
pass into the shadow of his wings, as the
wletched who call TO Death fear him wheI
they feel its icy fingers. But the feal
passed, and the great joy and the new
consciousness of power OF identity that thu
inspiration of true passion gives to some
strong, deep nature remained, and aftel
awhile she prepared TO make her way home
across the mountain-top, feeling rs thougl
| she were another woman. But still SHE
did not 20, but lay there with closed eyes
and drank of this new intoxicating wine
So absorbed was she that she did not no
tice that the birds had ceased to call, ant
that the eagle had fled away for shelter
She was not aware of the great solemn
hush that had taken the place of the merry
voice of beast and bird, and preceded thu
breaking of the gathered storm.
At last as she rose to go she opened heI
dark eyes, which had been for the mos
part shut while this great change WA
passing over her, and with a natural i'm
pulse turned to look once more on thu
place where her happiness had found her
and then sank down again with little
exclamation. Where was the light ant
the glory and all the happiness of the lii'
that moved and grew around her? Gone
and in its place darkness and the rising
mist and deep and Ominous shadows. As
she lay and thought, the sun had sunk
behind the hill and left the great gull
nearly dark, and, AZ is common in SOutl
Africa, the heavy stOrm-ciOud had crept
across the blue sky and sealed up the light
from above A drear wind came moaning
up the gorge from the plains beyond; the
heavy rain-drOps began to fall one by one
the lightning ilickered fitfully in the belly
of the advancing cloud. The storm that
John had feared was upon her.
Then came a dreadful hush. Jess had
recovered herself by now, and, knowing
what to expect, snatched up her sketching
block and hurried into the shelter of lit,
tie cave followed by water in the side OF
the cliff And then with rush of ice-cold
air the tempest hurst. Down came the
rain in a sheet; and then flash upon flash
cleaning fiercely through the vapOr-laden
air, and roar upon roar echoing in tho
rocky cavities in volumes OF fearful sound
Then another pause and space of utter
silence, followed by blaze of light that
dazed and blinded her, and suddenly one
of the piled-up columns to her left swayed
to and fro like a poplar in breeze, and
fell headlong with a crash that almost
mastered tn awful cracking of the thun
der overhead and the shrieking of the
| balloons scared from their crannieS in the
elm, Down it came beneath the stroke OF
the fiery sword, the brave old pillar that
had lasted out 50 many centuries, sending
clouds OF dust and fragments high up into
the heart of the girl who watched it's fall
Away rolled the storm rs quickly as it had
come, with sound like the passing of the
artillery of an embattled host, and then q
gray rain set in, blOtting out the outlines
of everything, like an enduring, absorbing
grief dulling the edge and temper of life.
Through it Jess, scared and wet TO the
skin, managed to climb up the natural
steps now made almost impossible by the
prevailing gloom and the rush OF the water
from the tabletop of the mountain, and 81
on across the sOdden-plain, down the rocky
path OH the farther side, passed the little
walled-in cemetery with its four red-gums
planted at its corners, in which n stranger
who had died at MoOifontein lay buried,
and 80 on Just as the darkness Of the<vet
night came down like =. ~jIUId,, nfoineaI
last. At the back door stood her unle
with lantern.
as that you, JESSE" he called out il
his stcntOrian tones. Lord! what {
sight" as she emerged, her sodden des'
clinging to her slight form, her hald'
bleeding with clambering over the ro,ks
her curling hair, which had broken lose
hanging down her back and half coveinI
her face.
lord, what a sightr' he eiacul.teC
again. "Why, Jess, where have yoI
been? Captain Mel has gone out to Tool
for you with the Kaffirs."
~ have been sketching in Leuw RlOof
and got caught in the storm. There un
Gle, let me pass, want to get theS we
things off. 1t is bitter night" ard OF
she ran TO her room, leaving long tnil o
water behind her as she passed Tie OLE
man entered the house, shut the doOb anC
blew out the lantern.
Now, what is it she reminds me of
he said aloud as he CROPPED his way dow